The MSRB's proposed rule change to establish supervisory and compliance obligations for municipal advisors was published in the Federal Register. The MSRB proposed the new Rule G-44 (to establish the supervisory and compliance obligations of municipal advisors), new amendments to Rule G-8 ("Books and Records to Be Made by Brokers, Dealers and Municipal Securities Dealers") and new amendments to Rule G-9 ("Preservation of Records"). The new Rule G-44 would draw on aspects of existing supervision and compliance frameworks from other programs and consist of a new supervisory system complemented

The MSRB held a quarterly meeting in which it approved the advancement of several regulatory proposals. The proposals include: enhancing disclosure of pricing information for retail investors; expanding the availability of pre- and post-trade data on the MSRB's EMMA website; establishing rules to curb pay-to-play practices for municipal advisors and the giving of gifts in a professional capacity; and requiring all municipal advisors to take a professional qualifications exam. S ee: Press Release.

The MSRB's revised proposal to require dealers to provide annual municipal securities training for registered persons who supervise or are regularly engaged in municipal securities activities was published in the Federal Register. In December 2013, the MSRB requested public comment on draft changes to the "Firm Element Continuing Education" requirement in MSRB Rule G-3 ("Classification of Principals and Representatives; Numerical Requirements; Testing; Continuing Education Requirements"). The MSRB modified the proposed new requirement to remove the specified one-hour minimum amount of training

FINRA released a podcast summarizing the latest FINRA notices, compliance resources and news from July 2014. The podcast highlighted recent regulatory notices, including the following: 14-31, which addressed FINRA's new rule prohibiting member firms and registered representatives, who want customer disputes expunged from the Central Registration Depository, from "offering customers a settlement or other compensation for consenting to or not opposing the expungement"; 14-30, which addressed amendments to FINRA Rule 2210 ("Communications with the Public") to exclude research reports on exchange

The CFTC announced that it obtained a $13 million civil monetary penalty pursuant to a consent Order issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The Order was issued against several firms and two crude oil traders ("Defendants") for alleged manipulation and attempted manipulation of the New York Mercantile Exchange Light Sweet Crude Oil futures contract spreads between January 2008 to April 2008. According to the CFTC Complaint, the Defendants took advantage of a "tight physical market" by executing a manipulative trading strategy designed to affect NYMEX crude oil